Thursday, May 11, 2017

Quick notes: Kurds advance, 5th gen fighter...

4 comments:

san said...

Regarding Iran - we don't need to do America/Israel/Saudi's work for free - let them chip in and contribute if they want us to go along. If USA/Saudi/Gulf countries want to cut ties with Pak, then we can reciprocate on Iran. Then we can all do the Baluchistan thing together. But there's no sense in us doing all the heavy lifting, while the rest of them get a free ride off us.

Pagan said...

I concur, San, except about involving the Saudis. The main reason those western powers stay away from the Baloch is their ISIS-like Sunni nationalistic language (against Shiite Iran). The onus is on the Baloch to convince the world that Gedrosia will not turn out to be another Afghanistan. BTW, I made many Persian friends in recent years. Great people.

san said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
san said...

I agree that Saudis always want to promote Wahabbi Mullah culture, which is a problem. However, Saudi has always been a vital source of financial/political support for Pak, so if there's an opportunity to further a rift between them, and keep Saudi support away from Pak, then it's worth considering. In this respect, it's a shame that Saddam is no longer around, because he would have been bold enough to support Baloch separatism against both Iran & Pak, without depending on Saudi. Anyway, Saudi seems to support ISIS in Afghanistan, which helps undercut Taliban - although I'm surprised US is able to tolerate Saudi support for ISIS in Afghanistan, since this puts US forces under threat. Best solution is for Baluchistan to have a Baathist-like govt, to keep the religious forces at bay - after all, Pak controls plenty of Sunni mullahs.

Another thing is that it could be possible to convince Saudi that CPEC might jeopardize Saudi's future by making Iran completely immune to economic sanctions. So India & Saudi could have some convergence in opposing CPEC, albeit for different reasons.